1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to technologies employed to handle physical mail such as paper envelopes, parcels, catalogs, fliers, leaflets, and packages.
2. Background of the Invention
Paper junk mail or snail-mail sent out each year is rising at an alarming rate. Most of this mail is sent unsolicited, such that it is unknown whether the recipients wish to receive it or not. Some schemes, such as coupon methods, allow the senders or sponsors of the junk mail to determine the effectiveness of the mail campaigns by tracking the number of coupons redeemed.
However, it is estimated that over half of this mail is never even opened by the recipients, amounting to approximately 4 million tons of wasted materials, not including wasted resources such as fuel to deliver the mail and fuel to remove the discarded mail.
In a first problem with the status quo, this junk mail often contains personal information such as the recipients' names and addresses. Many recipients have purchased paper shredders in order to destroy unwanted mail before discarding it.
In a second problem with the status quo, recycling costs are generally considered to be high for such materials.
One attempt to solve or reduce this problem is a service currently provided by the Direct Marketing Association (“DMA”) through their “Mail Preference Service” (“MPS”). In this scheme, consumers, but not businesses, can register for a nominal fee, which places their name and address in a “do not mail” database. Members of the DMA are required by the rules of membership to delete these addressees from their mailing lists. Additionally, if an unwanted piece of mail is received by a subscriber to the service, the subscriber can forward it, at the cost of forwarding postage plus a small handling fee, to have it processed by the DMA, presumably to notify the sender to remove the addressee from their mailing list. This scheme does not reduce mail from non-DMA members, as membership is voluntary, and it is costly to the consumer. Further, it is not applicable to businesses.
Therefore, there is a growing need to handle unwanted physical mail more efficiently and cost effectively for consumers and businesses.